Hats are worn to keep the wearer's upper head (the crown) covered to mitigate heat loss in cooler temperatures. However, after a day of heavy outdoor activity, such as skiing, a hat that covers the wearer's crown in typically undesirable as the wearer gets hot and needs to remove the hat to cool down. But most individuals still wish to cover their ears, and as such, use another piece of outerwear clothing: an ear-covering headband that does not have a crown-covering portion. Buying two articles of outerwear is expensive, and carrying two articles of outerwear is cumbersome.
One approach is to have a convertible crown-covering hat that converts to a ear-covering headband is disclosed in Balaban et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,548, granted May 5, 1992, and entitled "Weather Adaptable Ski Hat." However, Balaban et al. is heavy and cumbersome for carrying and wearing. It is also discloses a potentially uncomfortable knot of a drawstring positioned at the crown that would be in contact with a wearer's crown. Additionally, the invention in Balaban could be considered aesthetically unattractive, in either the crown-covering cap/hat version or in the ear-covering headband.